Delivering Babies When You Have No Clean Water

This Is What Delivering Babies Looks Like When You Have No Clean Water

The Talo health centre in Mali is a little different from the maternity hospitals we're used to in the UK. In fact, the only thing it has in common are the very cute babies that are born there. At Talo, a midwife has just seven litres of dirty water per patient each day – that's for drinking, cleaning and hand washing. To put that into perspective, that's the amount of water we use to flush a toilet, once.

On average, each of us living in the UK uses about 150 litres of water a day, while the NHS in England uses about 165 litres of water per patient, per day. The lack of water in Mali means no decent toilets and poor hygiene, and therefore a greater risk of infection for mothers and newborns, whose lives are put at risk.

Click through to see incredible photographs of the exceptional women who work and give birth at Talo – and remind yourself how fortunate we are to have access to clean running water in our homes and hospitals.

This winter, WaterAid will help get clean water and toilets to Talo health centre and 19 others across the world. To find out how you can support the appeal, visit www.wateraid.org.